The nation's third-largest bank's fourth quarter net income rose to $747 million, or $1.93 a share, from $704 million, or $1.74, in the last three months of 1995.
As expected, the latest period included a $280 million restructuring charge and a $147 million gain tied to the initial public offering of a credit card processing business.
The results exceeded the average estimate of $1.89 a share, according to a Zacks Investment Research survey of 22 analysts.
In heavy trading on the New York Stock Exchange, BankAmerica's stock rocketed up $5.621/2 to close at $107.371/2 today.
Investors and analysts say BankAmerica is still having trouble boosting revenue, as the California economy recovers from a long recession.
Net interest income was almost unchanged at $2.1 billion, as in come from loans barely budged.
Profits from loans also were hit as the bank packaged $1 billion in credit card loans into securities and sold them to investors. The provision for future lending losses rose to $220 million, up 69 percent from last year.
Noninterest income rose 29 percent to $1.5 billion, buoyed by the gain from the sale of stock in BA Merchant Services Inc. processing business. The bank also generated higher fees from deposit accounts, credit cards and other businesses.
Also, securities trading income rose 16 percent to $134 million, mainly from higher revenue from bond trading.
Expenses rose 14 percent to $2.3 billion, mainly from the charge for the plan announced last month to cut 3,700 jobs, close 120 branches and exit some operations. Excluding the costs of the plan, expenses would have totaled $1.97 billion, down 1.4 percent from last year's quarter.
BankAmerica, like other big banks, bought back stock, hoping to boost per-share earnings by reducing the number of shares outstanding.
In the fourth quarter, BankAmerica spent roughly $448 million to buy 4.7 million shares. For the year, the bank bought back 17 million shares, at a cost of roughly $1.3 billion.
BankAmerica's banking subsidiaries operate more than 2,000 offices throughout the western United States, including Bank of America-Hawaii.